A Tune of Demons Box Set: The Complete Fantasy Series

by J E Mueller

  “Are there ever set points with these damnable visions?” Clover asked, frustrated.

  “Yes,” Lee replied with no emotion. “And that’s never a fun moment to reach. It’s terrible when you see all possible paths will merge into one and it doesn’t matter which you choose since it will end the same. Either way, the five-year-old dies. Either way, you get there too late. Your best friend drowns. Your neighbor dies in a fire and no one knows how it started. The day your baby sister dies. Some things cannot be changed. Fixed points are controlled by the gods and the gods alone, and we may never understand their reasoning. I’d never ask for one again.”

  “I’m sorry,” Clover said, frustration gone. “I didn’t know -or understand. Thank you for explaining.” She bowed her head and there was a moment of silence.

  Lee nodded, those memories resurfacing. “I need a moment. Let’s get a plan together.”

  I looked up at him, but he shook his head. He needed some time alone. It had never occurred to me that someone as happy and fun loving as Lee could hide so many deeply upsetting moments. Every rose had its thorns.

  Jason took over the conversation instead. “All right time to choose your own adventure. I vote that Kaden should be on Zarek’s rescue team. Super speed will give you an advantage in case you’re ambushed. Clover as well. You can be invisible the whole time, correct?”

  “Yes. Without negative effects at that,” she confirmed.

  “Perfect.” Jason nodded. “And Kilee, you can see those who are hiding. Use it. I’ll be on team distraction. My skill is best used there. Mara, ready to move some swords and arrows?”

  “It’s what I’ve been waiting for all day,” she agreed, pumping herself up.

  “Conner, mess with their heads. Pop up and hit them where it hurts.” Jason pointed to him.

  “Got it.” He nodded fiercely.

  Jason looked at me. “Ready to knock some skulls around?”

  “No,” I replied honestly, “But if it saves my brother I’ll do it.”

  “That a girl. No need to do this without a heart. Sadly, in times like this, saving lives often takes lives. They’d kill innocents just for being born different. We can’t let them do that.” Jason reminded us. “Let’s put a stop to them.”

  Nodding, I went to find Lee. He wasn’t too far away, just leaning against a tree barely out of hearing range.

  “Are you going to be okay?” I asked him, unsure what more to say.

  He shrugged. “Yes. It’s just never a fun moment having all that rush back to you.”

  “I understand.” I had let past memories get the best of me many times. It was likely to happen again. There was no way I could blame him, and he knew it.

  “Do you want to talk about any of it?” I asked. Could I even say anything helpful? Usually, it was me who was hiding memories. It was a strange turnaround. I felt oddly unprepared to handle this.

  “Not today.” He smiled sadly. “But if we make it back all right I’ll tell you everything.”

  If we made it back. I stared at him for a moment, surprised by his words. With Lee’s usual ‘look to the bright side’ attitude, I knew this was serious, and it scared me.

  “What did you see?” I hardly whispered it.

  “A lot.” He didn’t lie. “There’s a high chance that some of us won’t make it. No one is exempt. But there are many paths where we succeed. We can’t let the fear of the bad overturn the chance the good will work out. If we fail, they’ll destroy so many more villages, kill so many more people… It will be a long time before they are stopped if we fail tonight.”

  “Then let’s get this taken care of.” I forced myself to turn my head back, but hesitated and glanced back at him. “Make it back, okay? You promised me a dance.”

  Lee smiled as best he could. “Only if you’ll accept.”

  “It’s a deal,” My heart pounded at the thought. Damn it butterflies, it wasn’t the time or place.

  “Then let's get ready.” He gave a more convincing smile this time.

  Heading back, it looked like everyone was ready to go.

  “Think we’re fine leaving the extra gear here?” Mara kicked her pack for emphasis.

  Kilee scoffed. “Yeah, leave the junk here. If we win we’ll get it. If we’re dead, we’ll haunt any jerk that takes it.”

  Jason looked at everyone in turn. “Remember, this is do or die.” His voice was low and grim. “We only need one person left alive to tell the outliers their plan is dust. Don’t spare anyone until the last person is left standing.”

  Lee shook his head. “That won’t matter. This is their main camp. Others will come back here if we need someone at the end.”

  “Fantastic,” Jason cheered. “Let’s get in there. Go silent into the night.” The sneaky group started off ahead of the rest of us.

  I said a silent prayer to every deity I knew for them. My heart wasn’t ready to find any of them dead.

  Jason gathered the attention of the remaining group. “The rest of us, let’s remain silent until the front door and then let’s crash and burn. I’m thinking we should walk up to the entrance and then flame shield our way into a fight once they’re over the shock of how mad we are.”

  “Perfect,” I agreed. “Stay close to me so that I can shield you. I can drop it as a whole or try and make gaps. Either way, if they touch it from the outside it’s going to kill them.”

  “Curses don’t last forever.” Jason offered a smile. “You’ve got a nice gift. Thank you for letting us use it tonight.”

  “My pleasure.” Tonight, it wasn’t a curse. Instead, it would be used as a gift, and that was a great feeling.

  We crept carefully past a few guards on patrol until we were just before the main entrance to their encampment. We walked casually out of the woods. The main guards didn’t know how to react and glanced at each other for a moment before coming to the conclusion we weren’t on their side and they aimed their swords at us. Gathering close together, I set up the flame shield and we were ready for action.

  The front guards tried to attack us despite the fire shield, getting near enough for the flames to latch onto them. Their screams created the entrance we needed. Everyone who didn’t take notice of the fire at first took heed of the screams as we entered.

  “Let me out,” Jason commanded.

  Without question, I opened a gap in my shield for him. In one swift movement, he jumped out into the open and stabbed an enemy who had gotten close to him. Shoving that one away, he prepared to attack another.

  Someone tried attacking from the other side as I was momentarily distracted. Clearly, they didn’t notice what happened to the guards in front. Flames latched onto them and the person was gone, their screams melting into the air.

  “Ready for some fighting?” I asked the others. My mood seemed set. My heart raced, but I was ready for a fight instead of flight.

  “Do it,” Conner agreed. I dropped the shield for them.

  I moved quickly out of range so that my magic would not hit my allies before reforming my shield. I let it reform just as I was running by as many of my adversaries as possible. The first few didn’t realize what I was doing. The rest dodged as quickly as possible or ran. Someone threw a sword and it momentarily pierced the shield before clattering to the ground in front of it.

  Surprised by what happened I turned towards the person who had attacked me. Knowing they’d soon run, I pushed the flames forward to strike, concentrating on keeping them straight forward and not veering off towards Mara who was fighting nearby.

  Some started fleeing. Others were grouping together.

  “Key!” Jason called, running towards me.

  I dropped the shield just in time and repositioned it around us just as arrows struck it and fell.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” He fist bumped the air.

  Inspired, I willed some of my flames to turn into magic arrows and used them to strike down the archer. The amount of control it took was draining, b
ut it was paying off.

  As the coast became clear, I made a gap in my shield, letting Jason continued on. I was impressed at how quickly and how well that worked. Seeing Jason’s idea, Mara and Conner both jumped towards me as they called on me for help. Thankfully, I was ready and able to shield them. Together we made it so that there was no one left within sight.

  “Let’s find the others.” Jason pointed towards the other end of the long camp.

  While the action was clearly where we were, there was a lot more of the camp to look through. With enough things already on fire to cause a distraction, we switched tactics and carefully started to sneak our way through the quieter areas.

  As we worked our way through, we ran into less and less people. By the time we reached the back half of the camp, we found what was obviously the main commander's tent. It was wide, long, and the only one that looked different from the others. Conner shrunk in size to check and see if it was clear and quickly came back out in his normal form to wave us in.

  The inside had privacy screens, trunks and chests, a large table with a map, and chairs. One of the far chairs had some rope laying around it and it looked like there had been a skirmish of some sort.

  “Think they’ve left already?” Jason asked.

  Something sunk in my gut. “No.”

  “I get that feeling too,” Mara agreed, slowly looking around. “Something feels off.”

  “The air is thick with magic,” I said slowly. “I don’t recognize the source.” I had limited experience in that field, but I knew the magic my team wielded and it was not from any of them.

  “Me neither,” Jason said softly.

  Conner nodded, eyeing the empty room suspiciously. “This is bad.”

  We slowly turned to make a circle, facing away from each other.

  “Thoughts?” I asked aloud. I wasn’t trained for this. Hopefully, someone here was.

  “If it’s not one of us, can it be someone from the village?” Conner asked hopefully.

  “They’d more likely join us, and not be hiding in a screen of magic.” I shook my head as gears turned in my mind. “It’d be really messed up if someone with magic was controlling non-magic people to kill those with magic.”

  “Why the fuck would someone do that?” Jason asked, baffled.

  It actually did make sense to me, and I hated the conclusion I was drawing.

  “Want to rule the world? It’s hard if people with power like yours can bring you down,” I replied. “Take them down and you’ve got yourself a nice throne.”

  “Magic users can be born to non-magic parents. It wouldn’t last forever,” Mara pointed out the flaw in my made up plan.

  “Enough hatred would take care of the problem itself. Make it illegal and ta-da… We’ve had many a mad king in our history. History recalls their names and deeds. Why wouldn’t another be possible?” I explained, undeterred.

  “Shit.” Conner nodded, coming to the same conclusion I was. “That’s actually plausible, isn’t it.”

  “They’re here still… but what is their magic?” Jason asked, slowly accepting my idea.

  I blinked. “We’re approaching this as if we’re blind. Magic it up, troops. Jason, can you sense where someone is if they’re touching the ground through your magic?”

  “Yep.” He concentrated.

  “Mara, does your magic see through other spells?” I was hopeful.

  She nodded, switching her vision over. “Well fuck. It’s an illusion.”

  “How screwed are we?” I asked softly.

  “Shield up!” Mara screamed instead.

  I conjured my shield, surrounding us within my flames as the illusion dropped and swords pointed at us from all sides.

  29

  We were completely surrounded but for the moment safe behind my shield. I tried with all my might to grasp the situation without letting my emotions change. Thoughts screamed through my mind and I wondered desperately what had happened to the others.

  “Very good.” The man nearest the entrance of the tent clapped. “I was going to kill you slowly, one by one, but you figured it out.” His stern voice filled the room.

  “It’s another illusion,” Jason called out. “The only real person is the one in front of us.”

  “I see the swords with both visions, though,” Mara’s worried voice warned us.

  “He’s got stronger magic than you do,” I replied as calmly as I could.

  “Again, well done.” He clapped. The man in front of us was bald and with a look that spoke all business. “You’ve managed to scare off or kill most of my men. Pity. It took almost three months to gather that many who were blind with hatred.” He seemed unconcerned.

  “We can take one guy,” Jason said, glancing over at us.

  “We don’t know what else he can do.” I shook my head. This one man had gotten this far already. It would be unwise to underestimate him.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the rash one?” he asked me. “Didn’t you run off scared when we broke your poor village?”

  I took pause for a moment. How in the world did he even know that? There was no plausible answer, but I decided to roll with the situation.

  “Ran off? Yes,” I freely admitted. “We all have the ability to be rash, but rashness doesn’t control me,” I corrected him. I couldn’t help but smirk.

  “It will when you see what I’ve done to your brother.” He smirked back.

  I didn’t buy it, I couldn’t afford to. “If he’s dead, it aids our cause even more.” I shrugged, playing his bluff. In truth, it would cause hell to rain down on our enemy. Our allies would be called in to help put out this fire.

  We locked eyes for a moment before he nodded. “Your family isn’t easy to ruffle with magic and lies. What fun.” His face went from a sarcastic grin to deathly serious. “But I’m running out of time. Can we be done with this?” He motioned for us to attack him, but I didn’t release the shield.

  “All right, so we’re safe for the moment.” Jason nodded thinking it through, “Can you attack him from here Key?”

  I nodded but didn't attack. “I can, but he’s ready for that.”

  “If his illusion magic is strong enough for me to see it with both visions, do you think these swords can kill us?” Mara asked carefully.

  “Yes.” I didn’t doubt it. “The swords could be real. He could have levitated them.” I let my flames extend a bit. The swords reacted like normal swords would, metal heating from the flames, but the men did not react normally. The fire went through them instead of latching onto them. The illusion broke. “Yeah, the swords are real.”

  “That’s some serious psychic stuff going on.” Mara nodded in understanding.

  “It’s not likely he has three strong gifts,” Jason pointed out a well known truth. “Any other thoughts on our obvious concerns?”

  The man pushed forward with his magic, testing the swords against the shield, but the swords wouldn’t break it. All they could do was pierce the outer layer and move no further.

  “Yes. I can’t kill him.” It struck me that the magic felt much like what I was used to with Jamie. It was so similar to my own. I pushed down the anger I felt brewing inside. “The bastard has curse magic.” I glared at him. “Why the bloody hell are you doing this?”

  His dark laugh filled the room. “Do I need to answer?”

  “Your control over your cursed magic is astounding.” I hated to applaud him but had to give him credit for it. Curse magic was meant to fight its owner. Even with control, it still had a chance of taking over. Yet his wasn’t actively fighting him. Could he have bargained with a demon to gain such control over it, or had they given him the magic?

  I had said it myself. History was full of mad kings.

  “Now, the question is why would you ever try to rid yourself of it?” He was more than happy to laugh at his own question as he paced about the room. “The best way to deal with cursed magic is to accept the token. Embrace your inner demons and call for
th their magic. The failed exchange for my soul got me this curse, but I elected to let the exchange take place so that I could have more control. I can make the world burn or just tear itself to pieces. It’s rather fun.”

  He gave a short and high laugh. “You’d have more fun if you joined me, Cursed child.”

  So, he allowed demons to make his cursed magic stronger. There wasn’t going to be an easy victory tonight. My heart pounded hard against my ribs, and I did all I could to keep my magic under control.

  “I’ve accepted my curse, but I would give all my magic away if it cut ties with whatever demon bestowed it upon me,” I tried to keep my voice even, “The world is cruel but it has it’s good. I won’t sell my soul to see this world destroyed.”

  Our token villain mimicked a yawn.

  “Great speech!” Jason applauded, ignoring the gesture. “Let’s figure out how to kill him now.”

  “I’m more worried that he’s not alone,” Mara commented.

  “You can’t even break my illusions. You should be worried.” He smiled. “You can still live if you join me.”

  We ignored his offer.

  I glanced at Mara. “What’ve you got?” I asked her, while neglecting to respond to the corrupted being that was sneering at us.

  “There's something not quite solid lurking in the background around him.” She said carefully trying to find the words for it.

  “He said he sold his soul.” Conner nodded, finally speaking up once more. “Could it be the demon continuing the deal? We don’t know the end terms, so that would mean the demon is likely lurking around until it can take his soul.”

  “Beautiful.” I couldn’t agree more. If any of the stories I had heard growing up were true, it was completely possible that the demon was there giving aid to this person until the contract was complete. Completed contacts were the only easy ways to get souls.